I DON’T WANT HIM IN MY CLUB ANYMORE: 25-year-old set to join new club for four times what Arsenal sold him for last year
VfB Stuttgart defender is reportedly set to sign for VfL Wolfsburg just one year after Arsenal sold the Greek international for just £2m.
According to the Wolfsburger Allgemeine Aller-Zeitung, the Bundesliga side have agreed to sign the 25-year-old centre-back in the summer for €15m (£12m), netting Stuttgart an impressive £10m in net profit one year on from the German club landing Mavropanos on a permanent deal.
The former Arsenal star signed for Stuttgart on loan last year with the deal including an option to make the transfer permanent for just £2m, and with Mavropanos establishing himself as a top centre-back in the Bundesliga, the clause was of course taken up.
However, with Stuttgart’s finances in the red and the club currently sitting 17th in the Bundesliga standings, selling Mavropanos is now firmly on the table for Bruno Labbadia’s side, with Wolfsburg now set to sign the defender for £12m in the summer.
Indeed, Arsenal are no strangers to underselling talents, with Serge Gnabry and Matteo Guendouzi now worth in excess of £40m each despite being sold by the Gunners for less than £10m. And now, a similar story has happened with Mavropanos in Germany.
Whilst Stuttgart’s profit of £10m isn’t the end of the world for Arsenal, supporters will still feel annoyed with how little the defender was allowed to leave north London last summer, with the transfer hopefully a stern lesson for Edu Gaspar and the recruitment team.
As mentioned, Arsenal are hardly the best club in the Premier League when it comes to selling players for profit, with the Gunners in recent years more inclined to get rid of names as quickly as possible regardless of their true valuation. And Wolfsburg signing Mavropanos should be helpful for the club in the long-term.
After all, Edu and the transfer team must have learnt valuable lessons by now in how to sell players with untapped potential, and with Mavropanos going to Wolfsburg for over four times what Arsenal sold him for last summer, the upcoming window could see the Gunners make some serious money on certain names.
